Build 42 Combat Changes Explained - Project Zomboid

Good news. Build 42 unstable is out! Bad News. They completely rebalanced the game. Guess its time to relearn it. I've done some extensive testing of the new muscle strain mechanic and will tell you what you need to know to deal with it. Just beware that so many more things change combat and significantly at that.

Build 42.0.1

Music from Project Zomboid:
Wandering
Working
Thinking of The Past

[Retanaru]

Watch at 1.5x speed for old Ret info dump.

[Zenbon]

Cant wait for the blink mechanic and dry eyes status

[Gustavo-whhn]

muscle cramps when moving: ✅
point blank shots hit: ⛔

[mr.braindead]

Oh wait, we can use rocks as a weapon now? THANK FUCK I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS!! OOGA BOOGA!!

[rootwrecker]

They really need to add headlamps to the game now

[sarris]

to me maybe the worst aspect of the game was spending a lot of real time just hoping for a necessary item to spawn so to hear that loot spawns were nerfed is sad

[i.su.]

They should have released an official changelog.

I had no idea how to level maintenence until I went in debug mode because it went from using the crowbar to repairing weapons (which makes more sense).

Unfortunately if you start with 0 levels in maintenence it takes around 50 duct tape to level to 1, certain weapons give you a little of the XP though I think.

Unfortunately there is no renewable repair resource, and given the loot nerf if you don't start with maintenence 1 you'll probably have to wait months before you level up.

Which is annoying because 99% of the new crafting is locked behind maintenance

[spoonfulofdreams]

The loot nerf has caused me to never find cigarettes at all

[quineloe]

one of the most impactful changes is how you simply can't find weapons anymore. It almost feels like Lumberjack is no longer S tier melee combat because you can't find enough axes. Many crates and shelves that used to be prime weapon loot spots now only hold crafting materials.

the same applies to skill books, as seen in the video. So many new books, so many new skill books, it's really hard now to get a full library

my biggest concern with muscle strain is how unrealistic it is. DOMS doesn't set in like that. It kicks in by next day (hence the D for delayed) We already have a mechanic to force you to stop fighting right now, exhaustion. We don't need a second one doing the same thing on top. I think it would add a lot to the game if it worked realistically instead of this.

[Junks]

Next update: wearing too small of a shoe gives toe blisters resulting in exposed wounds and muscle strain

[MonsterGirlEnjoyer]

Vintage Story mentioned Let's goooo

[PolumbiusTheThird]

I wonder if they know that too much realism is not fun.

[Anuwabu]

Muscle strain after swinging something with your arms is more realistic sure. Except PZ devs only love their realism as long as it's not giving the player too much of an advantage. Case in point: you COULD build a crossbow with common items found in a hardware store capable of flinging sharpened steel rods with enough power to pierce a human skull. A quick youtube search confirms.

But in PZ you may not. Realism for thee not for me.

[monkesarecool]

I looted two of the new towns and didn’t not find a single generator. The college in ekron is literally unlootable because there’s at least a couple hundred inside. When you can only kill like 20 zombies maximum before you need to hide and rest is terrible. And while trying to even clear the zombie near the campus you alert 10-15 new zombies in the process resting your progress.

[Elyk]

The extremely low amount of skill books is an intentional change. Baph, the dev in charge of loot spawn balancing, said this on the Discord when asked if the lower spawn rates were intentional:

"Yep. Because they have such a large impact on skill gain you're supposed to have to search a wide area to get a big collection going. That being said there are a few containers that generally have a crapload of books. You can find em in storage units, garages, school storage areas, etc."

[Bash-]

If modders can fix it so easily, why cant they, i have played and loved zomboid since the start but its starting to feel like they are leading us on for the sake of longevity

I wanna know who these pre release testers were, and how many hours they had with zomboid. How did these issues not come up.

I understand its unstable but i figured they would have focused on something like aiming long time ago.

They need to prove to me they care more about fixing the main issues rather than just slapping a shiney new coat of paint on it with some bells and whistles, that create more issues.

[charliechaplin]

The biggest thing I’ve noticed is just how confusing crafting is now. I’ll have all the materials and tools I need, be in enough light and have a crafting surface but some stuff just doesn’t work. Without anything to explain why it’s greyed out it’s left me stumped.

[docc]

idk if people know this but you can push zombies while they climb over fences/windows to cause them to never lunge. (you've been able to do this since like b41)

[TetanusSnowfall]

In B41 it was trivially easy to get kills in the triple digits by the end of the first week regardless of skills once you understood the combat (and especially if you got a good weapon), so I think most of the changes that make fighting harder are good. But I do worry that a lot of the other systems are clashing with the way that combat has been discouraged.

[oztinc]

My favorite PZ info guy. Short, sweet, thorough. I'm excited to learn the new mechanics and try a full woods playthrough